Scientists Put Future Plug-Ins to Work

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Scientists Put Future Plug-Ins to Work

A few forward-thinking university researchers have teamed up with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create a system that puts plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) to work in order to avert a looming electricity crunch.

Fast forward to 2011: In order to escape reliance on dwindling fossil fuel reserves, you did your part and bought a plug-in hybrid. Unfortunately for the power grid, so did every one of your neighbors. Now, the once-touted plug ins are gobbling up valuable electricity like a teenager grazing his way through his parents' refrigerator. Vice President Palin is up in the North Pole trying to negotiate a treaty with the Claus administration to deliver more coal to American power plants, and you just want to drive to your job as a regulator at Bank of WaMuChovia CitiMorgan Goldman Brothers.

In this not-so-distant future, the next wave of energy efficiency could involve drawing excess power from the charged batteries of parked, plugged-in plug-ins. "If we had lots of PHEVs all plugged into the grid, then what seems like an insignificant amount of energy storage becomes a large energy storage," University of Michigan Mechanical Engineering Professor Jeff Stein said in a press release. In other words, parking lots will turn into giant automotive communes in which your cars will create and share electricity based on their needs and abilities. Far out, man.

The NSF's Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation program provided $2 million in funding for the University of Michigan program, which aims to better distribute power through a "vehicle to grid" (V2G) model. In a V2G world, parked and plugged-in PHEVs would give and take electricity according to demand. "Cars sit most of the time," Stein said. "What if it could work for you while it sits there? If you could use a car for something more than just getting to work or going on a family vacation, it would be a whole different way to think about a vehicle, and a whole different way to think about the power grid, too."

The University of Michigan program aims to design new PHEV powertrains, assess the impact of PHEVs, and develop computer models that allow researchers to simulate how PHEVs will join and influence the electrical grid. They're not alone: Already, a University of Delaware program has created a prototype V2G PHEV, and automakers and energy providers will converge in Portland, Oregon in mid-October to discuss the readiness of the electrical grid for the oncoming onslaught of PHEVs. We're optimistic about their plans, but we know that it's only a matter of time before the American public starts clamoring for kilowatt-hour-guzzling full-size SUVs.